Kodo the Devourer

Kodo the Devourer is a deity of the Orcish Pantheon, with dominion over disease, famine, plague, and causing war among brothers. As a primordial deity, the Devourer is considered by many to be older than all the other orc gods, possibly including the Fire-keeper. While not widely worshipped by the mainstream Nation, conflict with orc tribes who have turned to Kodo's religion out of despiration is part of the reason for their reputation among humans as being abjectly evil; Kodo promises release from his torments for those who follow him, though to do so is a surefire way to find one's soul damned to the Abyss.

A chaotic evil diety, his symbol is a gaping maw. Divine spellcasters inspired by Kodo gain access to the Chaos, Destruction, Erosion, and Madness domains. His sacred weapon is the chain hammer. Of all animals, he prizes locusts the highest.

History

The teachings of Kodo the Devourer contradict themselves with regard to his origin. In some telling, he is the natural consequence of the creation of the Orcs by the Fire-Keeper, a physical manifestation of the cosmic hunger she created by making intelligent life. In other, he is even older, born from the act of the first predator, the spread of the first parasite.

Relationships

Kodo is feared, if not exactly revered, by the rest of the Orcish Pantheon; even Ogharod the Conquerer knows to give Kodo a wide birth. Though they share realms on the same plane, he has no contact with San Verrus, and is content to let the Mad Saint burn himself out in his house of mirrors. As the only primordial god who stands in opposition to him, he abhors the Fire-Keeper, and will thwart her designs wherever he can.

Appearance

Kodo the devourer has the appearance of a blasphemously obese creature, whose upper body is vaguely orcinoid, but whose body from the hips down is scores of chitinous legs not unlike those of a crab, holding him aloft and bearing him about the battlefield with remarkable speed.

Realm

Kodo occupies the Abyss's Charnel Fields, an expanse of territory that is haunted with the souls of the damned and with creatures bred in the constant chaos of the Abyss, throughout which he leads great hunts and purges to sate his unending hunter.

Providence

Kodo is often petitioned to cause the outbreak of crop failures among an enemy group. He whispers to his followers in their sleep, causing them to wake with greater and more peculiar cravings than ever before.

Servants

Many species of demon pledge their loyalty to Kodo the Devourer over their more natural masters, the Lords of the Abyss. While Dretches are, as always, over-represented, he is also popular among the Shemhazian and Nabasu.

Unique Servants

Trimetatron the Plague-Bringer

The herald of the Devourer is a large, green-hided Nabasu of incredible age and power, who has become rotund with age and power, and usually appears clad in half-plate, weilding a scythe. He is sent by Kodo to either support his followers or to cull his cults which have otherwise failed him in some way. On rare occasions, Trimetatron appears in Hell to conduct business on behalf of his master.

Church

Where Kodo the Devourer is held in reverence, it often brings his followers into conflict with believers in the more mainstream orc deities. Through his gifts and their own ruthlessness, his followers often become the dominant force in their communities, changing the social fabric of their settlement, and sometimes even their whole tribe, for the worse.

Worshippers

Those desperate for revenge against greater powers fall into Kodo's service with alarming regularity. More often, however, tribe leaders will pull their whole tribe into his fold, usually through an effort to turn his plagues and famine against someone else, often with the implication that he should break the disaster he's visited upon them himself.

The worship of Kodo the Devourer demands blood sacrifice, not merely of livestock, but often of other sentient creatures. Because of these strictures, his worshippers are careful to start with those most likely to oppose them.

Clergy

Priests of the devourer wear clothing to expose their distended bellies whenever practical, sometimes even in combat, and wear his symbol as a blazon upon them. Many are warriors themselves, participating in raids for sacrifices, and so wear his weapon at their hip, often carrying several sets of bolas as well. These priests are usually clerics or oracles; rare indeed is the druid mad enough to court his attention.

Temples & Shrines

Though the Orcish Nation is semi-nomadic, they do maintain permanent shrines and temples to their gods. While the nature of a tribe under Kodo's influence is usually to destroy itself, his followers are also the most nomadic of all orcs, usually breaking camp at their settlement after they have blundered the surrounding area, and going off on a raiding campaign that ends only when they have been overpowered and destroyed by a greater force.

This all being said, the long-dormant volcano known as the Hellmaw in the Atlas Mountains is held as being sacred to Kodo, and some of his followers make journeys there to petition him directly.

Holy Texts

While some collections of the stories, morals, and histories inherent to the church have been written down in either common or the Orcish language, no one such record or transcription is considered authoritative. Transmission of knowledge within the church is an oral tradition, and one that usually must be rekindled each time a settlement falls into his sway.

Church History

There is little continuity between individual groups of Kodo's followers. Where a camp or tribe turns to Kodo, they are often hunted down by other orcs, even whole Hordes on occasion. As a result, each retelling of the history of the church is a tale starting fresh each time a clan turns to worship the Devourer.

Holidays

Celebrations involved the debauched revelry in every craving his followers have - great feasts, binges of alcohol and other drugs, public orgies, and blood sacrifice. The Devourer teaches that to enjoy his freedom the orcs must indulge their every whim while fate allows them to do so.

Favoured Animals

Locusts, who settle in an area, devour all they deem edible, and then move on to repeat the process, are sacred to Kodo the Devourer.